Spiiderweb™

"A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." -- Thomas Mann

If so, I must be a writer.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Amanda You Didn't have to Pee

Sometimes I find gems out there:

At work, we have this system to where the first server that clocks in gets the first table, the second server gets the second, etc… It’s a rotation sort of thing.

So this server, Amanda, sees me walking up to the building, literally starts sprinting and butts her way to the computer so she can clock in a few seconds before me all the while yelling “Sorry, Ryan, I gotta pee!”

I clock in, start my opening side work and see her at the bar talking to my manager, April.

Me: “I thought you had to go pee, Amanda.”Amanda: “I already did.”Me: “No you didn’t. You just wanted the first table.”Amanda: “I went PEE Ryan!”Me: “I frickin’ hate you.”

Long story short: Amanda is a jerk and next time I see her walking up to the restaurant, I’m going to drop everything and launch into a sprint, punch her in the back of the head and clock in before she has a chance to figure out what hit her.

Great Bumper Stickers

Must Read IMHO

Years ago, when I first began participating in the experiment of online political discourse, I held great hope that this new medium would allow ordinary citizens to eventually break the stranglehold that the monied interests have imposed upon the American political process, including the American media, and give voice to the voiceless. It almost seemed divine providence that just when that stranglehold was on the verge of choking the very life from our democracy, this little miracle called the Internet emerged allowing us to bypass the primary conduits of political power and rescue ourselves from the inevitable descent into a kind of mass media slavery. After all, if religion is the opiate of the masses, television is a coma.

But it is clear to me that the potential of the Internet to restore control over the government by the people also poses the threat of being used to expand control over the people by the government - or, as is usually the case, the monied interests that control the government.

Lebanese See Hezbollah as Politically Stronger After Conflict With Israel

By a wide majority, Lebanese say they believe Hezbollah's political position within Lebanon is now stronger (64%) rather than weaker (23%) as a result of the recent 34-day conflict with Israel. Even Christians and Sunnis -- groups not overly disposed toward Hezbollah -- believe this to be the case by margins of roughly 2 to 1 (56% vs. 29% among Christians; 57% vs. 28% among Sunnis).

Cat Blogging

Terrorists are Already Winning in the US

Sorry I'm so late with this, but haven't seen it posted anywhere else:

Don't be surprised if you're asked to whip out your cell phone and make a call next time you go through airport security. A mobile phone that masquerades as a gun may sound like a device concocted for 007, but it's the latest hidden weaponry to show up on the radar of law-enforcement folks.

...

So far, no phony phones are known to have surfaced in the U.S. And aviation-security experts say screening equipment now in use can detect the cell guns and other "improvised explosive devices," such as fake calculators, cameras, laptops and PDAs. To speed your next security check, you may want to leave some of those gadgets behind, along with your tool kit. Says a senior U.S. law-enforcement official: "Even a screwdriver could conceal a shotgun shell in a hollowed-out handle." [emphasis mine]

'Scuse moi? Who out there wants to be without all these things, but can't afford to buy new ones at their destination? Man that tail is really wagging this dog.

Friday, November 17, 2006

What do you think about this?

Is this the kind of "universal" health care you envisioned? Just asking.

By America's Health Insurance Plans President Karen Ignagni

With more than 46 million Americans lacking health care coverage, America’s Health Insurance Plans has taken the initiative to propose comprehensive health care reform that would provide near universal access to affordable health care. Our goal is to expand access to health insurance coverage to all children within three years and 95 percent of adults within 10 years.

Our plan would expand eligibility for public programs, enable all consumers to purchase health insurance with pre-tax dollars, provide financial assistance to help working families afford coverage, and encourage states to develop and implement access proposals.

Key elements of the AHIP plan include:

-Expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to make eligible all uninsured children from families with incomes under 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).-Improving and expanding Medicaid to make eligible all uninsured adults, including single adults, with incomes under 100 percent of the Federal Poverty Line.-Establishing a Universal Health Account (UHA) to allow all individuals to purchase any type of health care coverage and pay for qualified medical expenses with pre-tax dollars, with federal matching grants for contributions made by working families to the UHA.-Establishing a health tax credit of up to $500 for low-income families who secure health insurance for their children.-Establishing a new $50-billion Federal Performance Grant to assist states in expanding access to coverage.

Over the last two decades, policymakers across the political spectrum have attempted to promote universal access to care, yet many of the same problems exist today. Too often, this debate has been has fallen victim to partisan politics.

Our plan avoids the political and economic pitfalls of the past by transcending the ideological divide, operating within the nation’s fiscal parameters, and adopting an approach that is targeted and phased-in. Already, we are encouraged by the positive feedback these proposals have received from leaders across the health policy spectrum. It’s a start. The window of opportunity is just beginning to open.

Now is the time for the country and our policymakers to seize the initiative. A survey conducted by Ayres, McHenry & Associates, Inc. and The Glover Park Group on behalf of AHIP found that 80 percent of adults want Congress and state legislatures to do more to extend access to coverage and that a majority of Republicans and Democrats favored every aspect of our plan. In that same survey, Americans also said that expanding health care access should be Congress’ top priority. We agree. Now it’s time to get to work.

Pollyanna?

I sure hope not.

By House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi

Last week, in a stunning display of democracy, the American people voted for change. Today, House Democrats have elected experienced, talented, and capable leaders who will help take our nation in a New Direction. With our new, energetic Freshman Class, Democrats will lead the 110th Congress and address the priorities of all Americans.

We’ve had our differences in our party. We have now come together. I wish all of the American people could have heard the discussion of our Caucus this morning. They would have heard speeches of mutual respect regardless of who anyone was supporting for party office. They would have heard speeches of unity for a new direction for our country.

Will the Bush nightmare never stop?

Hold on to your hats. I hear from a little birdie that the Bush administration has hired Dr. Eric Keroack to oversee Title X funding—the only federal program devoted entirely to family planning and reproductive health.

Keroack, who is currently the medical director of a Massachusetts pregnancy crisis center (you know, the folks that lie to women), will be the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs.

Keroack is not only a well-known anti-choicer, he’s also a major proponent of abstinence-only education…and when I say proponent, I mean fucking insane person. [emphasis in original]

First off, check out Feminitsting because she has great links in her post.

And, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs? Yuck! Do we really need one of those?

I think, if we stay alert, we'll discover there are more ways for Bush to fuck US than are spelled out in the Kama Sutra

BTW, an image search for Kama Sutra is três kewl. I nearly replaced the pic above.

Love to watch them eat their own

By Helen Thomas Falls Church News -WASHINGTON: The mid-term elections sounded the requiem for the group of neo-conservatives who helped design the disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq.

It's over for them and their big dreams of preemptive wars and conquest of the Middle East. If anything, this group has left America weakened by the tragic military misadventure in Iraq.

They convinced President Bush it would be a "cakewalk" to invade and occupy Iraq but it has turned out otherwise. Those power-driven ideologues have learned that the price for their dream was high -- too high.

So much for their calamitous "Project for A New American Century" which laid out the agenda to transform several Arab nations to their liking. It also meant sending Americans to kill and die for reasons yet to be explained by the president.

The neo-cons now blame a dysfunctional Bush administration -- not their own ignorance of the history of the Arab world. They have belatedly learned that Iraqis -- like any other people -- will fight any foreign invader and occupier. History would have shown them that overcoming an insurgency in the form of internal resistance has been a losing proposition.

Pure Feingold (Fine Gold)

A Way Out Of IraqSen. Russ FeingoldNovember 16, 2006

Russ Feingold is a United States senator from Wisconsin.

On Election Day, the American people weighed in at the ballot box: They want to get our troops out of Iraq. Voters rejected the president’s failed Iraq policy, putting Democrats in charge of Congress and responsible for setting a new direction for Iraq, and, most importantly, for our national security.

Democrats agree that we should begin redeploying troops, but some do not want to set a target deadline for the majority of troops to be withdrawn. That is a mistake. Without a target date, redeployment could drag on indefinitely. The president consistently refused to set a target date for withdrawal, and Democrats shouldn’t follow in his footsteps. Democrats should move forward with a new Iraq policy that includes a target date for the redeployment of U.S. troops so that we can refocus on defeating global terrorist networks.

On Tuesday, I introduced legislation requiring U.S. forces to redeploy from Iraq by July 1, 2007. My legislation recognizes that a target date for the redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq will help pressure the Iraqis to get their political house in order. Simply announcing when we will begin redeployment, without any end date, is unlikely to put adequate pressure on the Iraqis.

A target date isn’t just critical to our Iraq policy, it is essential for our national security policy. We cannot adequately focus on the pressing national security challenges we face around the globe when so many of our brave troops are in Iraq, and so many billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are being spent there. A timetable ensures that we can refocus our resources on fighting terrorist networks and on addressing trouble spots around the world that threaten our national security.

Because problems in Iraq won’t dry up overnight, my legislation would allow for a minimal level of U.S. forces to remain in Iraq for targeted counterterrorism activities, training of Iraqi security forces, and the protection of U.S. infrastructure and personnel.

But our current Iraq policy is making the United States weaker, not stronger. The president has continually refused to change our current approach in Iraq, despite a growing number of policymakers and experts, including many Republicans, advocating for a change of course. Voters responded to his failed policies by putting Democrats in control of Congress. They want to change course, and they have given Democrats the chance to finally put our national security policy right by proposing a timetable for redeploying U.S. troops from Iraq.

The president’s policy has us in Iraq with no end in sight. But the Iraqis need an end in sight to get their political house in order, and we need an end in sight so we can get back to fighting terrorist networks. Our disproportionate focus on Iraq has undermined our ability to confront the terrorist threat around the globe. Now Democrats can start to turn these wrong-headed policies around. But we won’t do that by continuing our open-ended commitment of troops on Iraq. And we won’t do it with tepid or muddled policies of our own. We will do it by setting a target date for redeployment, so that we can direct our resources to defeating the terrorist organizations that seek to harm this country.

Hacking the vote...NOT

We finally have someone weighing in on this issue who has some expertise. Yeah, its long with a high geek threshold (which I overcame), but it explains things most people don't really understand about computer programs.

Contrary to what the documentary [Hacking Democracy - PBS] implies: Technical vote hacking most likely did NOT occur in the 2000, 2002, 2004, or 2006 elections. Please note that I wrote technical fraud; there were other dirty tricks that the Republicans engaged in which I'll address later.

Global warming is real

Polar bear cubs in Alaska's Beaufort Sea are much less likely to survive compared to about 20 years ago, probably due to melting sea ice caused by global warming, a study released on Wednesday said.

The study, published by the U.S. Geological Survey, estimated that only 43 percent of polar bear cubs in the southern Beaufort Sea survived their first year during the past five years, compared to a 65 percent survival rate in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"The changes in survival of cubs are very dramatic," said the study's author Steven Amstrup, polar bear project leader for the USGS Alaska Science Center.

The falling survival rate comes as a warming climate has melted much of the sea ice off Alaska's northern coast, limiting polar bears from hunting for food at the ice's edge, Amstrup said.

"The things we're observing are consistent with a population that is undergoing nutritional stress," said Amstrup. "We can't say definitively it's because of changes in the sea ice, but we don't know what else it would be."

The study also found that adult male polar bears captured after 1990 were smaller than those captured before then.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Clearer heads will prevail? OMG!!!1!!

This is one of the sanest things I've seen from the business community.

Hank Cox of the National Association of Manufacturers said his group "will certainly have our door open," although he said Boxer "does represent a tougher stand on environmental issues than we've had in the past, and we can potentially see where there's going to be more vigorous debate."

"If you're going to make these assumptions about what is causing global warming, the whole world needs to participate together," Cox said. "The Chinese are opening a new coal-fired power plant every week, and within a few years they will pass us in terms of carbon-dioxide emissions. For the U.S. to impose severe, expensive economic restraints on our own economy, while the Chinese ignore it, would not have any appreciable impact on total global emissions.

Of course he's right. Everyone has to jump on this train, but the US is the engineer. I think the UN is the conductor. If the US doesn't do anything about global warming, the other's contributions will be negated.

The inter-agency report was sent to the United Nations. It includes the forecast that total greenhouse emissions by the United States will increase 43 percent between 2000 and 2020. The United States is the largest contributor to global warming. [emphasis mine]

The MSM and Bushco can lie to Americans all they want, but the world knows what's really happening

Instead of listening to the American voters, Bushco is going to charge ahead like a fucking bull elephant:

President George Bush has told senior advisers that the US and its allies must make "a last big push" to win the war in Iraq and that instead of beginning a troop withdrawal next year, he may increase US forces by up to 20,000 soldiers, according to sources familiar with the administration's internal deliberations.

Mr Bush's refusal to give ground, coming in the teeth of growing calls in the US and Britain for a radical rethink or a swift exit, is having a decisive impact on the policy review being conducted by the Iraq Study Group chaired by Bush family loyalist James Baker, the sources said.

Although the panel's work is not complete, its recommendations are expected to be built around a four-point "victory strategy" developed by Pentagon officials advising the group. The strategy, along with other related proposals, is being circulated in draft form and has been discussed in separate closed sessions with Mr Baker and the vice-president Dick Cheney, an Iraq war hawk.

So where's the good news?

If 150 people were kidnapped, that means 80 are still being held, right?

Iraq - Kidnappers released about 70 people snatched in a mass abduction by suspected Shiite militiamen who answer to a key backer of the prime minister — a sign the militants went too far and Iraq's leader may be yielding to intense U.S. pressure to crack down on sectarian violence.

But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki clearly has more work to do. Iraqi police, hospital and morgue officials reported 105 new violent deaths Wednesday; 54 of the victims were tortured and shot, their bodies dumped in Baghdad.

Fahrenheit 451?

This via truthout. Basically Bushco is hurting US in ways we don't even realize:

It never got down to actual book-burning, but the Republican choke-hold on government would clearly have taken us there. In August, under the guise of fiscal responsibility, the Bush Environmental Protection Agency began closing most of its research libraries, both to the public and to its own staff.

The EPA's professional staff objected strongly, insisting that closing the libraries would hamstring them in their jobs. In a letter to Congress protesting the closures, public employees said, "We believe that this budget cut is just one of many Bush administration initiatives to reduce the effectiveness of the US Environmental Protection Agency, and to continue to demoralize its employees."

The EPA's precipitous move to close the libraries was based on a $2 million cut in Bush's proposed $8 billion EPA budget for 2007. EPA bureaucrats did not wait to see if Congress might restore the funds or shift budget priorities in order to save the libraries; it acted immediately to box up documents for deep storage, and shut the doors.

While the official EPA line is that all of the documents will be eventually be digitized and made available online, this will cost money that the agency does not have, so for practical purposes, all of the thousands of reports and maps that now exist only on paper or microfiche will be lost to the public and to agency scientists. They might as well just burn them.

Closing the EPA libraries is the perfect symbol to characterize the methods of the Bush administration. Since 2000, the Republicans have cemented their reputation as ushers of a new dark age. They have sought to shroud the light of science by closing libraries and by suppressing scientific reports. They have gagged their own scientists and persecuted whistleblowers. They have cloaked government in secrecy, a prime example being Dick Cheney's secret meetings with oil companies to draft an industry-friendly national energy policy. But that era is now winding down.

Is it not strange Sci-Fi authors were so prescient? Just think Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm, 1984. Who needs Nostradamus?

Must Read IMHO

From Making Light. Its long with many links to other long articles, but its great.

A snippet:

The Repubs are going to blame the coming debacle in Iraq on the Democrats. "See!" they're going to yell, "We had it all under control until those guys came along and messed up our plan!"

That won't work. The Republicans dropped the egg; now it's broken and no amount of finger-pointing at the Democrats will relieve them of the responsibility for dropping it.

Numerous reports from Bush's own security apparatus have revealed that we've screwed the pooch in Iraq. National Intelligence Estimates from last spring were giving bad news. Just like Hosni Mubarak had predicted before Bush started his war, the fighting in Iraq is creating, motivating, and training new terrorists; the war is decreasing America's security.

When is free trade not free trade?

Monday night I voted against H.R. 5602, which would have extended normalized trade relations with Vietnam. Even though I expected that the bill would still pass on suspension, I wanted to send a message with my “no” vote to Vietnamese officials that we will not continue to tolerate unfair trade deals. I am very pleased many of my colleagues agreed and the bill failed to pass the House.

Vietnam has been dumping excess seafood on the U.S. market, driving down prices and crippling Louisiana’s shrimping industry. Just between 2000 and 2003, this illegal dumping has deflated the wholesale price of shrimp imports by 31 percent, costing American shrimpers $4.4 billion in revenue.

Commercial shrimping has been part of our culture in south Louisiana for generations, and we can’t keep giving away American jobs by allowing unfair trade practices to go unpunished. Until Vietnam agrees to sell seafood to the United States at fair market value, I will continue to oppose normalizing trade relations with them. We shouldn’t be afraid to protect American jobs and businesses from unfair foreign competition.

Just why is Vietnam's actions "dumping", "illegal" and "unfair"? If fair market pricing was not part of the trade agreements, that's not Vietnam's problem.

Bush authorized torture? No surprises here

Authority always comes from the top, right?

The Central Intelligence Agency has acknowledged for the first time the existence of two classified documents, including one signed by President George W. Bush, that have guided the agency's interrogation and detention of terror suspects.

The CIA disclosed the existence of the documents in a letter Friday sent from the agency's associate general counsel, John McPherson, to lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union.

The contents of the documents were not revealed, but one document, as described by the ACLU, is "a directive signed by President Bush granting the CIA the authority to set up detention facilities outside the United States and outlining interrogation methods that may be used against detainees."

The second document, according to the group is a Justice Department legal analysis "specifying interrogation methods that the CIA may use against top Al Qaeda members."

ACLU lawyers said they would now press for public disclosure of the contents of the documents.

"We intend to press for release of both of these documents," said Jameel Jaffer, a lawyer for the group said in a statement.

"If President Bush and the Justice Department authorized the CIA to torture prisoners, the public has a right to know."

Now we're really in trouble

Must Read IMHO

Let's consider the pluses and minuses [of the results of the election for the economy of the D.C. region:]

The big negative is that the government-contracting gravy train, which the regional economy has been riding for the past four years, just jumped the tracks. It's not only that the war in Iraq will start to wind down, along with all the logistical support and reconstruction work that goes with it. Even more significantly, the Democratic Congress is about to lift the veil on the orgy of contractor waste, fraud and abuse that has gone unchecked at the Pentagon, the intelligence agencies and the Homeland Security Department.

The process of De-Halliburtonization will lead to a cutback in defense and homeland security contracting, a squeeze on contractor profits, a hit to share prices and a noticeable deceleration in wage increases for key employees.

Now tell me why anyone would be anti-business. All this is true, but a negative?

My oh my, but this tinfoil hat fits so well

Please humour me on this, but is Bushco trying to establish a monarchy?

• George W Bush is president (duh!)• Rove seems safe• Cheney - we will come back to in a bit• Condoliza Rice is Bush’s right hand, uh “man”• He wants Robert Gates* in as Secretary of Defense• My guess is, James Baker* will be brought into the fold• Then there’s Lee H Hamilton, a Floridian, and a member of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars which is controlled by the president [WikipediA] who could also be brought in• Speaking of Floridians…• If Cheney were to retire, guess who appoints the new VP? Yep, the idiot-in-chief who just happens to have a brother with no political office• Bush has the power to declare martial law and has trashed habeas corpus• Bush has secret prisons around the world and the power to declare anyone an enemy combatant and ship them off to one of those prisons• Finally, Bush could, as commander in chief during war, prevent any elections in 2008• There’s yer monarchy!• At that point, Bushco could dissolve the Congress and the SCOTUS

Read your history, folks. That’s precisely how such a thing is pulled off. All this could happen unless the Dems start throwing up road blocks.

Its quite interesting how easy it is to build a conspiracy theory once you get rolling.

About Me

Spent many years programming, mostly mainframes. Been in business for myself, sky dived, scuba dived, practiced karate (until the broken ribs & finger), driven a sprint car (unreal). Want the US to be great again and worry it's impossible. I consider myself a moderate because I believe most Americans don't approve of torture, do want everyone to have health care, a pension and/or a job, privacy, freedom and NO WAR. Not too radical. I use profanity like a sailor so you should leave if you are sensitive.

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